3 Catholic Workers Arrested After Break-in At Northwood MIlitary HQ

by Photos Mon Dec 29, 2008 15:33

Photos from Northwood HQ

Susan and Martin

Vigil Opposite Northwood HQ Dec 28th.

Mass for the Dead opposite Northwood HQ Dec 28-Feast of the Holy Innocents

Les Arrested at Gates of Northwood HQ-Dec 29th.

Susan and Martin brought out from Base and Arrested Dec 29

by 3 arrested israel dc embassy Tue Dec 30, 2008 16:36 Washington D.C.

3 Mothers Arrested @ Israeli Embassy, DC,
Protesting Bombing of Gaza
(Clare Grady & Ellen Grady, Ithaca, NY
-Heidi Schloegel Bronx, NY)

December 29, 2008 - As part of a group of 60 people from the
Atlantic Life Community, three mothers, Heidi Schloegel and Ellen
Grady and Clare Grady of the Grady clan of Ithaca NY CWers, were
arrested outside the Israeli embassy. The group was petitioning
embassy officials for an end to Israeli air strikes on Gaza. The three
approached the embassy gate singing "Peace, Salaam, Shalom" and
holding signs which read, "Peace. Stop the killing," and "Stop the war
on the children." They knelt and prayed before being arrested. The
three mothers are being held over night, and it is anticipated that
they will appear tomorrow for arraignment in Superior Court of the
District of Columbia.

The action was part of a three day retreat organized by the
Atlantic Life Community to commemorate the biblical Feast of the Holy
Innocence and to protest the slaughter of the innocent of today:

"When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to
Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for
the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother
during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death
of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the
prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had
been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill
all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and
under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then
what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is
heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her
children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." -
Matthew 2:16-18

Earlier Monday, Dec. 29th, the group held a vigil at the
Pentagon on the retreat's theme of empire and children. Eleven of the
seventy vigilers were arrested and charged with "disobeying a lawful
order" for holding signs outside of the Pentagon's designated free
speach zone. They are scheduled to appear in court on the 6th of
March, 2009.

by Ft McCoy Arrests Wed Dec 31, 2008 00:21

Anti-war Protest at Ft. McCoy Results in Arrests

SPARTA, Wisconsin — Three anti-war activists were arrested on trespass
charges at the main gate of Ft. McCoy Monday, Dec. 29, during a
protest of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organizers said the
action was a condemnation of the "killing of innocents."

More than 3000 Wisconsin National Guard members are set to be sent to
Iraq in 2009. The State's 32nd Brigade Combat Team will be part of the
call-up.

An great number of civilian deaths have resulted from the 2003
U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Iraq- Body-Count.org estimates that over
90,147 civilians have been killed. The British medical journal Lancet
published two reports on Iraqi civilian deaths: in 2004 it estimated
98,000 had been killed; in 2006, it estimated 654,965 civilian deaths.

In June of 2006, the Iraqi Health Ministry reported that at least
151,000 violent deaths had been caused by the war.

A January 2008 survey by the London-based Opinion Research Business
estimated that over one million (1,033,000) total Iraqi deaths had
been caused since the 2003 invasion. This poll's margin of error was
+/- 2.5 %, giving a range of between 946,000 and 1,120,000 — the
largest estimate of innocent victims made by any survey.

Bonnie Urfer, 56, Luck, Wisc., a co-director of the peace group
Nukewatch, who was among those arrested said, "Like any war, the U.S.
is killing mostly civilians. This is criminal, and our National Guard
shouldn't be forced to commit these crimes."

Also arrested Monday were: Cassandra Dixon, 50, of Mary Catholic
Worker House, Wisconsin Dells, and Gail Vaughn, 57, of La Crosse,
Wisc.

December 28 is a traditional religious holiday, known as the Feast of
the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the biblical report (Matthew
2:1-18) of a hated King Herod of Judea ordering "the massacre of all
the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under."

In November, state representative Spencer Black, D-Madison, 77th
Dist., drafted legislation challenging the legality of using state
National Guard troops in unlawful foreign deployments.

The bill notes that the 2002 congressional Authorization for the Use
of Military Force in Iraq has expired. That authorization allowed the
attack on Iraq for the purposes of 1) eliminating an alleged threat
from Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, and 2) removing
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein from power.

The 2002 Authorization has not been renewed, Black's bill states, so
there is no legal basis for the ongoing war in Iraq. Fifteen other
state legislatures are likewise challenging the warfare use of Guard
troops. — end —

--------------------------------------------

Statement of the Group:

"We are gathered today at Fort McCoy from Wisc., Minn., and Illinois,
to commemorate the deaths of the Holy Innocents from the Christian
liturgical calendar ... and to demand an end to the military
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"These occupations have resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000
civilians, most of them children.

"We demand that the Guard remain home in this time to rebuild our
bridges, our levies and our roads. We urge the Guard members to refuse
orders for deployment.

"We call on our elected officials to accept the challenge of our day
to find alternatives to military intervention throughout the world and
to meet the challenges of injustice and violence with nonviolent
intervention and with justice."

by Ciaron - Catholic Woker/Ploughshares Wed Dec 31, 2008 14:59

When I first got busted at Northwood HQ Command Centre for British Forces deployed abroad, it was in the winter of 01 and the invasion of Afghanistan was just underway. Susan, Scott and I were arrested after enhancing the Northwood sign thus.... http://www.indymedia.ie/article/85631#comment216541

It seems such a long time ago. Could this war on Afghanistan, the British effort being directed from Northwood HQ, have been going on so long? When I was busted in 01, Benjamin Whatley wasn't even in high school. Benjamin http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/whatley/2980682was killed in an isolated outpost of Afghanistan on Chrstmas Eve last week.

As we read through the names of the dead outside Northwood HQ last Monday, I realised a lot of these British guys would not have been of high school age when this war began! I realised there was nothing, in terms of a broader anti-war presence in the culture, that would have given these young people pause before signing up to be cannon fodder for the folly of Bush and Blair.

The mass anti-war protests that came and went in 03 never seriously considered getting the tube out to Northwood or travelling to the U.S. and British bases dotted aound England. It was left to the radical remnant to directly intervene there... Les at Portsmouth, small efforts at Fairford, the TP crew at Faslane, ourselves at Shannon. Today the churches remain quiet, along with the academy, youth culture and the arts in the face of a no win war on Afghanistan. A war that will surely escalate in the new year and continue to expand into Pakitan.

Over the past weekend, nine of us from the Catholic Worker tradition gathered outside of London on the Feast of Innocents to reflect. The good news is that our hospitality houses in Hackney, Oxford and the farmhouse seem stable and involved in the work of welcoming refugees from war zones and resistance to the arms trade and wars that create such death and displacement. Folks had come from celebrating Christmas with the homeless, the refugee, survivors of torture and bondage. I presently find myself working in a shelter in Dublin and couchsurfing. I'm presently housesitting 3 cats and a dog for a month in a pretty ritzy part of Dublin. Considering I arrived in Dublin in 02 to housesit Tom Hyland's dogs in low income Ballyfermot, as Tom departed to celebrate East Timor's independence, I feel like a picture of upward mobiity! The Catholic Worker experiment seeming to have run its course in Ireland for the time being.

So here we are again, back at Northwood HQ.http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo...s.htm
The anti-war movement has shrunk but there is visual evidence of Northwood HQ expanding with is $billion building budget.

Nine of us gather for a weekend of reflection and there are a couple up for risking their liberty to confront the war machine. Susan employing the Warren Carter commentary "Matthew and the Margins' http://www.betterworld.com/Matthew-and-the-Margins-id-1...lects on the violence of Herod and the disobedience of the Maji. Scott leads us through the last days of Jesus, contrasting the entry into, and exit from, Jerusalem to the triumphus tradition of the imperial Romans. It's always nourishing to return to scripture with people of faith willing to resist empire. Fresh eyes from recent experiences with the poor and the warmaking state seems to peel off a new layer of meaning from the text and nourishment. The last chapter of the Old Testament and Jesus NVDA in the Temple is worth a 'compare and contrast' alrighty! Was news to me!

With the help of
-a recent reading of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (as the Guardian recently paraphraed Cohen in its review the author "has seen the future and it's murder")
-a recent viewing of the Smash Edo campaign DVD "On the Verge" (inspiring stuff from a small crew of commited Brighton folks up against their local expresion of the all profiteering war machine)
-and yes a viewing of Johny Cash's early '70's "Gospel Road" (the gospel to a country and western soundtrack is less shocking that this story of normal fisherman etc got out of antiquity - a literary genre dominate by kings, gods, warriors etc etc)

...I offered a reflection on the place and time we're in. It feels remarkable to be with these good people Lizzie (who I lived with East Timorese exiles at the Liverpool CW '96-'99), Les (3 tours of the North as a British Marine, arrested multiple times in nonviolent resistance notably as the "Ark Royal' pulled out of Portsmouth for the Iraq inasion), Martin and Angela from the London CW so consistent in NV resistance in the imperial city while caring for refugees from its wars, Susan likewise from similar efforts out of Oxford, Hubert fresh from Germany after muliple experiences with the monastic life and horticulture, Scott formerly of the U.S. Air Force and Maria who both care for exiled and exploited women.

It's remarkable that we have hung in with each other for close to a decade and nonviolent direct resistance to these long wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. We know each other pretty well by now, our strengths and weaknesses. We have known each other half the life of Ben Whatley who died last week in the outback of Afghanistan following commands that came from Northwood HQ in the leafy quiet sububia of London.

We played some footage of Bush to mark the passing of his time, from Caligula to Augustus, empire remains empire - demanding total dominion and subservience and the death of the innocents.

While we were kept busy in the '80's resisting U.S. sponsored massacres in Central America and nuclear threats of omnicide, the U.S.was busy sponsoring Saddam in war with Iran and the Taiban in war with the USSR. Today it's American boots on the ground attempting to secure the new colonies, the Vietnam Syndrome seems to have been vanquished as the homefront has learnt to live in heavilly censored environs with the steady deaths coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Old allies have become new enemies in the United States of Amnesia. Even some of the '80's faces fom the Central American killing fields remain - Gates, Negroponte doing their thang in the Middle East now.

As we resisted at Northwood HQ, friends were resisting at the White House, Pentagon, Israel Embassy D.C., Ft McCoy, STRATcom/Omaha and Caoimhe was on a boat out of Cyprus with medical supplies for Gaza.

In these bleak times community and resistance is where we can find hope. And as Phil Berrigan instructed "Hope is where your ass is!"

by D.C. Update Thu Jan 01, 2009 13:34

UPDATE: Catholic Workers Ellen Grady and Clare Grady of Ithaca, NY and
Heidi Schloegel of the Bronx,NY, were released at 6:30 pm today from
the DC jail, and were seen in Washington DC Superior Court this
evening, with a court date set to appear on Jan. 29th, 2009. The
three mothers were charged with unlawful entry and crossing a police
line......even though they didn''t cross the line. This can be seen on
video footage on today's show of democracynow.org They will be
available for interview Dec. 31 after noon time, EST.

Thirty Ithacans, including little children, braved frigid weather for
hours as they shared the message with banners to thousands of passing
cars, that Israel must end the slaughter in Gaza. We mourn the
continued deaths and injuries as a result of this outrageous assault
on the people of Gaza by Israel. Go to www.tompkinsagainstwar.org web
site to see interviews and coverage of the Ithaca protest on behalf of
the people of Gaza.The statement of our witness is below and on the
web site.

3 Mothers Arrested @ Israeli Embassy, DC, Protesting Bombing of Gaza
(Catholic Workers Clare Grady & Ellen Grady, Ithaca, NY and Heidi
Schloegel Bronx, NY)
http://tompkinsagainstwar.org/2008/12/29/3-mothers-arre...gaza/

by youtube d.c.3 Fri Jan 02, 2009 05:42 Washington D.C. U.S.A.

Youtube (3 mins) -Catholic Worker women arrested at Israeli Embassy D.C. D28 Feast of Holy Innocents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMJtJKzaK1c&eurl=http://...edit2

by Trial Mon Jan 11th. Ft. McCoy defendants - Ft. McCoy defendants Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:51 Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Peace Activists to Stand Trial in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, January 12

United States District Court, 120 North Henry Street, at 1 PM

Press Conference at the Vigil for Peace on the corner of M. L. King
Jr. Blvd. & Doty St. in front of the Madison Municipal Bldg, at 12
noon

Charged with trespassing are thirteen participants in WITNESS AGAINST
WAR, a 450 mile walk from Chicago to last summer's Republican National
Convention in St. Paul "to challenge and nonviolently resist our
country's continuing war in and occupation of Iraq"
(http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war). The activists from around the
country were arrested by Department of Defense Police on August 10, as
they attempted to enter the gates of Fort McCoy, a military
installation in Wisconsin's Monroe County.

Fort McCoy's "vision" according to its mission statement is "To be the
Premier Training Center and Force Projection Site of Choice for
America's Defense Forces," training more than 122,000 soldiers in
2007, active military as well reserve and National Guard troops from
Wisconsin and around the Midwest and beyond. Included among those
trained at Fort McCoy are "troops processing for
mobilization/demobilization through the installation."
(http://www.mccoy.army.mil/AboutFortMcCoy/documents/Fact...g.pdf) In
plain language, Fort McCoy is the site from which a large portion of
US soldiers, reservists and National Guard members continue to be
trained and shipped out to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The activists who will be on trial on Monday came to Fort McCoy with
another "vision," expressed with banners and signs calling for an end
to the war and a leaflet meant to be distributed to soldiers there
reading: "We come to Fort McCoy to, in some small way, act in
solidarity with members of the military who choose to nonviolently
resist this war by refusing to be deployed to Iraq. We encourage
members of the active duty military, Reserve and National Guard to
consider refusing deployment orders and to be in contact with the GI
Rights Hotline regarding their rights within the military at
1-800-394-9544."

Soldiers leaving and entering Fort McCoy on August 10 gave friendly
greetings to the WITNESS AGAINST WAR walkers they passed in the few
miles before they reached the fort's main gate and seemed to welcome
their plea for the wars to end. Several of the DoD police officers who
met them at the gate, most of them veterans, some recently returned
from combat, also expressed appreciation for the message brought by
the walkers even as they arrested them. Any support for the activists
among Fort McCoy personnel did not, however, rise to the higher ranks.
In a letter responding to the activists' peaceful intentions, Col.
Daniel A. Culver of the fort's Office of the Command Judge Advocate,
cited "risk of disruption to Fort McCoy's mission" as grounds to ban
the activists from the installation.

The defendants, who will be representing themselves at trial are:
Kathy Kelly, 54, Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence ;
Jeff Leys, 44, of Watertown, Wisconsin; Joy First, 54, of Madison, WI;
John Bachman, 56, Eau Claire, WI; Brian Terrell, 52, of Maloy, IA;
Renee Espeland, 47 of Des Moines, IA; Kryss Chupp, 49, Christian
Peacemaker Teams, Chicago; Ceylon Mooney, 33, Memphis, TN; Eileen
Hanson, 34, Winona, MN; Joshua Brollier, 25, Clarkesville, TN; Lauren
Cannon, 38, seminarian at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL;
Alice Gerard, 51, of Grand Island, NY; and Gene Stoltzfus, 68, of
Ontario, Canada.

by Sentenced Fri Mar 20, 2009 14:59 Watford Court, England

Catholic Workers Sentenced in England for Northwood HQ action

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424624.html

by 6 activists fined Sat Nov 07, 2009 14:03 Northwood, London

6 activists from a variety of anti-war organisations fined for action at Northwood HQ protesting UK/US bombing in Afghanistan

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/4724422.Protest..._in_/